An overtime goal in the Stanley Cup playoffs is like a rowdy bar shutting down with a closing time picked entirely at random. Especially when the visiting team wins.

One moment, the arena is full of life and good times and possibilities. The next, things are silent and everyone files out quietly to the parking lot. What’s the closing-time mantra? You don’t have to go home. But you can’t stay here.

The Sharks were at home Friday night. But they didn’t stay on task. Playing against a Dallas Stars team in Game 1 of their second-round series, the Sharks spent far too much time playing hockey exactly the way the Stars wanted both teams to play. Which is why the game ended in a 3-2 victory by Dallas.

(6) A few weeks after the first event at American Airlines Center in Dallas, it was found that the glass installed in the bathrooms was not the same as what was originally intended. Apparently, people had a clear view into the restrooms (YOW-ZA!) The glass was changed immediately.

(7) When Evgeni Nabokov was selected late in the 9th round by the Sharks, they had NEVER seen him play; rather, they based their selection of him on the skills of his father, a goaltender who played for 18 years in his native Kazakhstan.

We’ve handled one big, strong, quick-skating tough team, and now we have another. But this goaltender is up for the Vezina, and they have potentially an even greater set of forwards to throw against our young D.

(I said to Mike this morning, “This goaltender probably isn’t going to like you very much in the next few days and he replied with “He’s a great guy off of the ice, but no, hopefully he isn’t happy with me when this series is over.”)

To top it off, the San Jose arena is one of the loudest and most violent crowds that I’ve ever seen in person. It worries me, but for some reason Mike loves it. He said he hopes they boo him, he hopes they give it to his goaltender and his team and his teammates because it drives him…

Sportingnews.com NHL reporter Victor Chi, a former San Jose Sharks beat writer for the Mercury News for over 10 years, answered a handful of questions about working in the American half of the orginal six, visiting Columbine High School after the school shooting tragedy, Mike Ricci taking a ceremonial faceoff with Queen Elizabeth, the Sharks-Flames series, the impact of late goaltending coach Warren Strelow, questions and expectations surrounding Joe Thornton and Sharks captain Patrick Marleau, and offered insight into the rigors of covering a team over an 82-game regular season.

Q] After 15 years working at the Mercury News, 10-11 as the beat writer for the San Jose Sharks and time spent in Chicago, Detroit, Boston and New York, what are your thoughts on the state of the industry?

[VC] Yes, I’ve had the pleasure of working in the American cities of the Original Six plus covering an Original 22 franchise. It’s a unique perspective. The newspaper industry is obviously going through a painful transition phase. It can be depressing with news of layoffs—- I have first-hand experience with that—- and buyouts almost every day. But the public has a tremendous appetite for information so other opportunities are going to develop.

Montreal’s Alexei Kovalev tied the score with 29 seconds remaining in the third period and Tom Kostopoulos scored the winner 48 seconds into overtime in the Canadiens’ 4-3 win over the Flyers in Game 1 of their series. It was only the fourth playoff game in NHL history in which a team tied the score in the final minute of regulation and won it in the first minute of overtime.

This is the first time that Mike Modano and Joe Thornton have played against each other in a postseason series. They’ve played in the same regular-season game 28 times, with the Stars winning 16 of them, Thornton’s teams (the Bruins and Sharks) 10, and two games ending in a tie. Thornton (9-18-27) has outscored Modano (10-15-25) by two points in their head-to-head games.

Sharks left wing Ryane Clowe says there are two ways to respond to someone like Dallas Stars agitator Steve Ott….

“The wrong response would be to let him get to you and take undisciplined penalties and put your team in a hole,” Clowe said Thursday, one day before Dallas and San Jose open their second-round playoff series tonight at HP Pavilion.

“The right response,” he continued, “is to tell him, ‘You keep that up, just make sure you let (Mike) Modano and (Mike) Ribeiro and (Jere) Lehtinen and (Brenden) Morrow and (Brad) Richards know that every time you do that, we’re going to hit those guys twice as hard.’ “

Exactly one year ago, Jeremy Roenick strolled into our studio for the start of the second round of the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Not surprisingly, it was a Rock Star entrance. He was late (plane’s fault), arriving just as our first intermission was beginning. He had not rehearsed, not been given a single tip on which camera to look at, how long to talk for, or how to deal with a producer yapping in his ear.

Of course, none of that mattered. The only thing Roenick does better than play hockey is…talk. He was more comfortable in the first 30 seconds on television than some are after 10 years in the business. He said smart things, dumb things, outrageous things. He waved his arms madly in the air like he was in the middle of a dance floor whenever we first came live to studio.

NHL.com has preview pages set up for every series going into the second round. Each one of the links below has its own selection of related multimedia archives (photos and video), the official media guides for each team and stories from various NHL.com writers.